Guidelines for order of listed authors

The order in which our biostatistician is listed as author depends on extent of contribution:

First author: Biostatistician plays major role in project development or hypothesis generation, (when existing data) substantially changes direction of hypothesis and corresponding analysis, provides a unique contribution, conducts analysis, and writes large portion of your paper.

Second author: Biostatistician plays major role in project development, offers statistical expertise needed for your research, or conducts substantial and/or complex analysis of data. Typical position for biostatistician involved in life cycle of project or who has unique analytic expertise (e.g., mediation analysis, microbiome, genomics).

Middle-listed author: Biostatistician does not necessarily collaborate in design of study, but conducts data analysis, writes statistical methods section, and assists in interpreting results for conclusion.

Senior author: Biostatistician provides significant mentoring to first author, offering guidance for first author to conduct analysis, or plays major role in helping first author design the study. Generally has been substantial one-on-one meeting time as well as additional analysis and paper writing support beyond typical collaborative role.

Junior or student biostatisticians: Biostatistician mentored by senior statistician, senior statistician immediately follows junior statistician within authorship line (e.g., if junior statistician is second author, mentoring statistician would generally be listed as third author).